


Soulmates

by Lilly_Bei_Stark



Category: Hellboy - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Nuada is not so bad, Post Golden Army, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:14:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8030800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilly_Bei_Stark/pseuds/Lilly_Bei_Stark
Summary: To bring back Abe's lost love, John will make an unexpected sacrifice. But maybe it will turn out for the best.





	Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I'm usually a Hellboy/John Myers fangirls, but I got on a John/Nuada kick. I hope to be back to my usual pairing soon, but for now I'm gonna enjoy the chance to play with the soulmates idea. 
> 
> Warning: M/M action, Swearing, Canon-typical violence
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the Hellboy characters. i just like to take them out to play every now and then. I'm always open to receiving them as a gift though.... please and thank you Mister Mignola... Haha just kidding. On to the story!
> 
> Enjoy!

John nearly tripped over the copious stacks of books strewn about the library as he carried a small bowl of rotten eggs to their resident icthyo sapien. He righted himself with a few staggering steps that took him right up to the table where Abe was working, bent over a book with a blue cover and reading with fervor. The smell of the rotten eggs made his nose twitch as it doubled. The previous meal's eggs were still sitting on the desk in their glass bowl, untouched.

The agent sighed and nudged the first bowl over to add the second to the table. Abe didn't so much as look up from the page he was reading. Leather bound tomes were stacked on either side of him at the table. One stack for complete failures and another bookmark laden stack for possible results.

John looked at his watch. He had about ten minutes left in his shift. He should go work on the paperwork creating a mess on his desk... A sigh puffed out of his lips and he pulled out the heavy brick of a cell phone that he had to use when they were underground; where they were in the base right now. He tapped through the buttons, logging into the BPRD server, and clocked himself out. He'd catch hell from Manning for this, as with anything that deviated from the man's precious bureaucracy...but Abe could use the help.

John took a seat at the table beside his sapien friend. He shifted the 'possible solutions' stack over to himself and pulled the top book down. He saw Abe's dark eyes flick over at him for a moment. He didn't acknowledge the attention, setting himself upon the task at hand. He flipped open the thick tome to the place where the ribbon-like bookmark stood out colorfully against the yellowed vellum and started reading. 

The two of them stayed like that for several hours, searching for answers, until the doors opening startled them both. John looked up from where the words had started to swim around in front of him, curious at who was there. Abe watched with him, until Liz's dark head poked past the golden doors, then turned his gaze down again.

John glanced between his friends; an almost impossible task as the book stacks surrounding Abe had tripled, leaving him mostly hidden. He saw the worried expression cross Liz's features as her eyes found the two of them at the desk. He saw Abe's determination not to be distracted. He decided the best course of action was to get up, weaving his way through the book maze to Liz's side.

Her dark eyes fixed on him, bewildered and worried. John placed a hand on her arm and motioned out to the hall, taking the two of them out so that neither could be a disturbance to Abe.

"John, what's he doing?" Liz whispered as soon as they had passed out of the door. The agent rubbed the red splotch on his cheek, where he had been leaning on his hand for several hours and caused the area to go numb. 

"You know what he's doing." John replied, suppressing a sudden yawn in the back of his suit clad wrist. "He's trying to find a way to bring Nuala back. She's an elf. Not bound by the same rules as humans are." He blinked away the wave of blurry sight following a yawn and nodded back towards the library. "He's found a few solid leads so far....but I'm not sure where we're going to find the tear of a god or the dust of an angel's feather..." He trailed off, starting to sink back into his thoughts.

"You shouldn't be encouraging this." Liz frowned at him, crossing her slender arms. John felt his body jolt slightly at the severity in her tone, feeling like a child being scolded by their parent. He blinked at her a few times. 

"What?"

"You shouldn't be helping him research everything under the sun for false hope. If you want to help, be a shoulder to lean on while he grieves." Liz's expression turned sad. "It's going to break his heart again when he finds out that he can't bring her back."

John was shocked into silence. He stared at her. He had expected Liz, of all people, to be on board with this. After all, Hellboy had brought her back from death with a whisper. If that was possible, then why shouldn't it be possible to bring Nuala back from the dead in a similar way. They had the princess' body; or, they had the wax statue that she had become after the fight with the Golden Army. Why _couldn't_ they bring her back?

John was about to argue his points back when a look of pain crossed the raven-haired woman's pale face. He saw her hand fly to her rounded stomach and he immediately felt bad. Liz was pregnant. She was stressed out and protective of those that she held close. She was only trying to keep Abe from being hurt further.

"Okay." He accepted softly. "I'll try to help him with that too." His hand landed softly on the firestarter's softly clothed shoulder. "I'll get him to take a break when I go back in...Now lets get you back to your room, okay?"

Liz huffed at him, her expression at once thankful and dismissive. "I'm perfectly capable, _Agent Myers_. I'm not an invalid." She responded with amused disdain. John's mouth quirked into a smile, having met one or two stubborn pregnant women before and knowing exactly how little they needed anyone's help.

"HB doesn't call me Boyscout for nothing." He joked, placing a hand between her shoulder blades and guiding her forwards. Liz rolled her eyes as they made their way through the halls around the library. 

"That doesn't mean you have to prove him right." She smiled, allowing herself to be steered and placing a subconsciously protective hand on her stomach.

"I dunno. If I piss him off, he might send me to Antarctica again. I only just warmed back up." John forced a little shiver. Liz's smile grew into a smirk. The two of them had shared plenty of 'Hellboy being mean to John' stories, including some that John hadn't known about. 

"I thought you said you liked the cold." A deep voice interrupted from the far end of the hall. The two of them looked up to see Hellboy, tail twitching, making his way towards them. John's hand instinctively dropped away from Liz's back, even though the red demon was far less insecure now that the woman was carrying his children. Still, John didn't want to tempt fate and he really didn't want to go back to Antarctica. 

"I meant that I liked having snowball fights and hot chocolate! Not the high probability of frostbite and wearing eighteen layers of clothes." The agent retorted, narrowing his eyes. Hellboy shrugged as he reached them, chomping on an unlit cigar. He'd stopped smoking after Liz gave him the news about the twins and John hadn't seen him light up once since he'd gotten back from the pole. Not even on the job, which was an odd novelty. At once, it seemed wrong and John almost missed the smell, but it was also a happy thing to see the demon so concerned about someone other than himself. 

"Okay boys." Liz interrupted, like she always did when their back and forth started to go on too long for her liking. John noticed the tired look in her eyes. He glanced up at Red, making sure that the big guy saw what he did. The demon's large stone hand came around to gently curl at his love's side, becoming at once comforting and protective. 

"Come on, Liz. Lets go back to the room and watch that photography documentary that the suits finally brought for ya." Hellboy grinned and shepherded Liz off down the hall towards their room, casting a smile backwards at John once he got her moving.

John watched them go for a moment. There was a feeling of longing prodding at his gut, but it wasn't for Liz like Red had assumed when the big lug sent him to Antarctica. The longing was more for the connection. He wanted the type of connection that Hellboy and Liz had. 

It was part of the reason he was helping Abe chase resurrection stories down the rabbit hole. Abe had found that connection with this princess and John couldn't just stand by and let his friend try to get it back all by himself. John cared too much about his friends to let them down in times like this.

He spun on his heel and marched back towards the library, rubbing away some of the tiredness in his eyes with the heel of his hand. He'd help Abe as long as he could. If it took tomorrow and the next day, and the next... He would find a way to help Abe bring back his princess. 

When John stepped through the doors to the library, he was shocked to find Abe out of his chair. Eating even! The sapien was holding a book in one hand, munching on a rotten egg held in the other hand, and he was hurrying about the room with a determined stride. He would set down the book in his hand to scoop another into the crook of his arm before picking up the first again, apparently assembling an important collection of scattered information. 

"What did you find?" John asked aloud, letting the library doors swing shut behind him. Abe's attention snapped towards the agent, a tiny smile gracing his difficult to read face. 

"John! I've found it! I've found a way to resurrect her." His relief was almost palpable. "There is a way to resurrect an elf that was not killed by natural causes. It does not even take that many tools." The sapien dumped the books from his arms into a tidy pile in one of the armchairs in front of his tank. He popped the last of his egg into his mouth and swallowed it down quickly, then returned to irrepressibly grinning, nearly buzzing with excitement. 

"That's great Abe!" John strode across the room to his friend's side, eyes immediately diving to look at the book still held in his hand. His quick skimming caught something about pouring the melted wax of an elf's body into the cool water of a lake. John looked back up to Abe. "Tell me what you need from me and I'll get everything around. It looks like we'll need to requisition a truck. And we should probably get some space cordoned off at Weequahic Lake. Branch Brook Lake is pretty close to a school and we might get rebellious school kids sneaking past the police barricade if we do it there." He pulled out his phone, opening up the notepad app so that he could start making notes. 

Abe seemed to straighten and bring several things to order inside his head. "Hold on a moment, John." His friend put in, interrupting the business mode thoughts that John had begun delving into. The brunette paused, eyes raising from their task to look at his friend curiously. The icthyo sapien paused for a long moment, seeming to weigh several things that he had not previously considered. John allowed himself to lean his hip on the chair beside them, patiently waiting. "The fact of the matter is... I cannot resurrect Nuala without taking into account her bond with her brother."

John felt a chill at the mention of Nuada. Sure, he'd never met the elf prince. He knew nothing about him other than what the files said on the matter...but the files said that he was a skilled warrior with the want and the strength to kill every human on the planet. The only reason that he had stopped his crusade against the human race was because of Princess Nuala's noble sacrifice. John wasn't sure how much he bought into the idea that Nuada was just a bloodthirsty monster, because he was certain that no creature was 'pure evil', but he was certainly a force to be reckoned with.

"So.... does that mean that... if she comes back, so does he?" John asked cautiously. He turned his eyes on Abe, hoping his imploring brown conveyed all of his concern at that idea and none of the rumor driven fear that came from the mere utterance of the elf prince's name. 

"Well... sort of." Abe waved one of his webbed hands. "It's more like... If we want any success of resurrecting Nuala...then we are going to have to bring back Prince Nuada at the same time." There was a tone to the sapien's voice that sounded like... Well, John wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded like he expected a fight. 

"Okay... So, there might be some problems..." John tried not to cross his arms, vaguely remembering that it was a 'defensive' position. He wanted to project as much of a neutral air as he possibly could. "Won't Nuada just kill any of us humans that try to help with this...? I mean, I figured I'd be there to help, and Manning would probably send some other human agents if we're escorting the two wax statues....bodies..." John frowned to himself. That didn't sound right. "If we're taking the prince and princess' remains out of the building." He amended, "Are we opening ourselves up to a huge bloodbath?" 

Abe looked away, picking up a golden spherical bauble from one of the end tables to fiddle with it. It appeared to be a puzzle as the panels were sliding apart and over one another. He seemed to be thinking about something, so John went patiently quiet. Abe spent a few moments on the golden puzzle before he finally gave a heavy sigh. 

"There is something that would probably prevent Nuada from continuing his genocide on the humans. It is part of the process to bring him back." He revealed cryptically. John blinked. 

"Then-"

"There is something I should tell you about the process, John... And should you choose not to assist me when you know the full details, I will not hold it against you." Abe placed down his puzzle and turned to look the agent in the eye. John felt himself swallow, a little self conscious under the sudden scrutiny. 

"I want to help you, Blue. You know that." He put in, not wanting his friend to think that he would abandon him just because the help he needed might be difficult to give. Abe's knowing stare studied John's face for a long moment. 

"I know you would do everything in your power to help, John. That is not in question.... The question is, can you really give up a chance at something that everyone else gets to have." The ominous and ambiguous response didn't really tell John anything, so he waited while Abe drew together all of the extraneous information to relay to him.

"In order to bring a supernatural creature back to life, one must draw them back by a bond stronger than the one that binds life to a body. A bond that goes as deep as the soul." Abe nodded to him and John found himself nodding back to show that he was listening. "The thing is, once two souls are bonded, they will stay that way. Of course, for me to bond myself to Princess Nuala is no trial. I have already seen into her soul as she has seen into mine. There is not a doubt in my mind that before her death we were already bound in our souls."

"Is the soul bond different from the bond that Nuala and Nuada had? You didn't get their injuries or anything, so it must have been, right?" John interrupted, already overwhelmed with the information and curiosity. 

"The soul bond is different, but not entirely. It strengthens over time once it has been acknowledged. Given enough time, it is not uncommon for a soul to follow its mate after one or the other dies. But it still does not result in the mirrored injury phenomenon. That was something unique to Nuada and Nuala." Abe picked up one of the books he had been gathering when John returned to the library and flipped it open to a bookmarked page. "Because of Nuala and Nuada's unique bond, however, it is necessary to bring both siblings back at the same time if we want either of them to survive. Their bond was likely lessened by their death, and I theorize that they will no longer acquire each others injuries as before, but they will still be unable to live if the other dies."

John tried to straighten the information in his head into a flow chart. So, to bring Nuala back, Abe would have to bind her soul to his. The way Abe seemed to be putting it, that wouldn't be a problem. They also had to bring Nuada back to life if they wanted Nuala to survive. If John was thinking about this all clearly, then that meant that they would have to...

"We have to bind Nuada to someone else...make him... like soulmates? With someone." The agent theorized aloud. Abe nodded an affirmative. "Do we have to find his specific soulmate or....?"

"From what I have been reading, a pre-existing bond does not have to exist. We should be able to make the bond between Nuada and whomever brings him back from the other side." Abe stared at John, clearly waiting for something to click inside the human's head. Obliviously, John took the book that Abe was holding and scanned the pages. He read the curvy text there about the magical sibling bond and how it could be lessened in the presence of the soulmate bond.

"So, anyone can bring Nuada back. I can do whatever it is that we have to do and that would bind him to me." John started thinking aloud, picturing himself at the lake with Abe, mirroring whatever his friend was doing to bring back the elf sibling he was responsible for. 

"John." Abe drew him back before he could descend into planning mode again. "A soulmate bond can not be broken. Ever."

The human nodded his head, still clueless as to the point his friend was trying to make. Two webbed hands fell onto his shoulders, tightening almost to the point of pain in their effort to gather the human's attention. 

"If you bound yourself to Nuada, he would be your soulmate. Forever." It still failed to garner a reaction from the brunette; not penetrating his mental to-do list. "John, you wouldn't be able to fall in love with anyone else."

That time, it sunk in. 

John's brown eyes widened, their multicolored flecks on a backdrop of brown catching the warm amber light of the library. His brain stalled out, picking up little bits of data and assembling them the best it could. 

He would have a soulmate. A soulmate that hated him and all other humans, for eternity.

He thought back to Liz and Hellboy; to how he had longed for that type of connection in his life. Yet, if he helped Abe, then he would never have that. Helping his friend meant losing the possibility of having love. Ever.

Was he prepared for that? 

Abe shook his head sadly, taking his hands from John's shoulders as his own began to sink. "As I said, I understand you not wanting to-"

"I didn't say that!" John protested quickly, breaking through the surface of some kind of oppressive mental ocean. He waved his hands between the two of them. "I want to help you Abe! I do!" He took a deep breath and gathered his resolve. "I just... Can I just think about it overnight? Please...?" 

Abe fixed the agent with a long look. His gills flared and he finally gave a slow nod. "Do not make this decision hastily, John. I would be forever grateful for your help, but I do not want to take this away from you without your certainty that this is what you wish to do."

John straightened, a determined expression on his face. "Thanks, Abe. I'll be back, okay?" He clapped a hand softly on the shoulder before him. His sapien friend smiled, a little sadly, and watched as the agent slowly left the room. 

\---------------------------------------------------

John wanted to sleep on the decision. His uncle had always told him that sleeping on an idea was a good way to let his brain dwell on the various facets of said idea. Then in the morning, he could think more clearly about everything.

Except John couldn't sleep. 

He tried. He took a couple of melatonin pills, which had become more of a habit lately than he'd like to admit. He stripped down to his boxers, made sure his door was locked, and curled up under the incredibly soft blanket that Liz had bought him as a welcome home present when he returned from Antarctica. Together, it was a formula that hadn't failed him before. 

Until tonight.

Tonight he found his eyes wandering the plastered ceiling, matching each shadowed pock mark to a pro or a con that he was mulling over. His mind roved across the ideas, like a man with a metal detector sweeping back and forth across the sand. Except, instead of metallic prizes being dug up from the shifting sand, John was left with indecision and a worried ache thumping hard in his heart. 

On one hand was the concern of self-preservation. John would be giving up any chance of love for the certainty of a bond to a human-hating elf prince. A guaranteed life alone. Which would be just as unfair to Nuada as it would be to John. Could he do that to someone? Could he do that to himself?

On the other hand, Abe deserved to be happy. It wasn't fair for him to lose his love to the complex web of hatred and apocalypse. And in all rights, Nuala had missed out on her connection with Abe as well. It wasn't fair to her that, to save humanity, they both had to sacrifice so much.

John wanted to help his friend. He could add that into the pro-soul bonding column in his head. He knew that his friends' happiness was important to him. In fact, he could almost say that his friendships were more important to him than the off chance of finding the love of his life. 

His uncle had spent his life alone, yet surrounded by friends, and John couldn't see that as any less fulfilling of an existence. His uncle had definitely been happy. Perhaps John could be happy with just that. With having his friends and helping them all to be happy. 

\----------------------------------------------------------

John didn't end up getting any sleep. He did, however, come to a decision. Despite any misgivings he had about binding his and Nuada's souls together, John wanted to do this for Abe. And Nuala. Though he'd never met her, from the description others had provided the elf princess had been a wonderful person. Deserving of her life back at the very least. So he was going to do what Abe needed him to. 

When he stepped into the library, planning to tell Abe this, he was surprised by the sight of Hellboy and Liz sitting together on the couches. Both of them came to the library, certainly, but not often at this early hour. And even more rare was them coming at the same time. Usually one or both of them couldn't be dragged from bed this early. 

Abe was putting away some of the massive stacks of books that he had dragged out over the previous months. John had a feeling that his sapien friend was cleaning up because he knew what John's answer was going to be. Or maybe, it was because Hellboy and Liz were there to help him persuade the agent, because the instant Red saw him, he straightened like he was getting ready for a fight. John found himself smiling as he let the library doors fall closed behind him. The deep thump of the golden doors settling into place was somehow comforting in its familiarity. At the sound, Liz realized where Red was looking and followed his gaze to look at John. Her lips curled up in a tight smile that didn't meet her worried eyes.

"Good morning, John." Abe greeted him as he picked up another stack of books. His tone and a quick flick of his eyes to the pair seated on the couch said that he didn't approve of what was about to happen. John decided it was time for him to ease their minds before things got out of hand. 

"I called Manning this morning. We can get a section of Weequahic Lake cordoned off by nightfall. Agents Donavan and Solly are going to help us take anything we need out to the lake during the day and Agents Moore and Vaughn are on shopping detail. If you need anything too obscure, that should be first on the list so they can get started looking early. We don't need a full moon or anything right?"

Everyone in the room froze. John found a bark of laughter breaking through his mouth. Three pairs of eyes stared at him as if he had grown another head. 

Abe was the first to shake off the confusion. He put down the small stack of books he'd been attending to and walked over to look John in the eye. His large, dark eyes gazed into the human's. "Are....are you certain, John?" The sapien raised his hand to his friend's arm, gripping uncertainly. "This is a very big decision."

"I know. I spent the whole night thinking about it. I made my decision and have been trying to convince Manning that we know what we're doing for the last two hours." The agent cleared his throat uncomfortably. "We do know what we're doing right?" He widened his eyes at his friends a little to project a bit of worry. "I may have convinced him that there's a possibility of the supernatural world getting really active with the absence of an elven ruling power. So, if he asks, we're preventing a huge influx of supernatural activity and possible war over the power vacuum left in the wake of the siblings' deaths." John blushed, slightly uncomfortable with having created such a fabrication to achieve their goals. He really couldn't think of any reason that Manning would accept for bringing the twins back other than a chance of supernatural war. 

"That... Actually, that is a very creative reasoning. We have had no evidence that the supernatural world was leaning that way, but I doubt that Director Manning has any inkling of that." Abe blinked a few times, seemingly impressed. The brunette's mouth quirked up in a shy little smile. 

"Yeah...well...it was all I could think of. Anyways, I'm sure about this. If I can help you bring back the woman you love, then I'd rather do that than hold off on the one in a million chance that I might find someone myself. I'd rather help the relationship that exists than cling to the idea of one that doesn't." John ran a hand back through his carefully combed brown hair, messing it up. "So what else do we need to do this?"

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

"You're a good friend, John." 

The agent looked up from the back of the truck he was rooting through, blinking as some of the standing construction site lights dazzled his eyes. Liz was standing beside him, but not looking at him. Her eyes were directed off towards where the others were setting up two huge cauldrons. Hellboy was teasing Abe, if the grin on the red demon's face and the shy posture of the sapien's shoulders were anything to go by. Her lips were quirked into the soft smile she reserved for people she cared about when said people weren't looking.

John looked between her and his other two friends for a moment, then turned back to the truck, searching for the long stemmed lighter that they had brought to light the fires under the cauldrons. He was certain that, should he be unable to find it, Liz would oblige them and provide the flame. He just didn't want to abuse the powers of his pregnant friend when he _knew_ there was a lighter here somewhere. 

"I'm just trying to do the right thing." He responded at last. It was the same response he had given four or five times now. Part of him wondered if the constant questioning was meant to make him lose his nerve. He didn't, but it certainly felt like the universe was throwing him a giant, glowing question mark. 

"Bull shit." Liz said, absently reaching into a plastic tub and pulling out the lighter that John was looking for. The agent's eyes widened and he gave a quiet 'Ah!'. Then her words sunk in. He frowned, reaching out to take the lighter when she offered it to him. 

"What do you mean?" He asked. Liz pushed herself up to sit on the tailgate of the truck with a slight huff of effort. John held back the instinct to help her, knowing that it would only earn him a glare. 

Liz tossed her hair, which had grown long again since the revelation of the twins, and fixed him with a serious stare. "Doing the right thing is returning a dropped wallet or helping a little old lady cross the street. I think _giving up your chance at love_ is a little above and beyond the call of duty. Even for you, John." She explained, pale fingers curling around the tailgate. 

John paused, for the first time all day being given a legitimate reason not to do what he was about to do. He looked around, seeing the other agents engaged in conversation by the BPRD garbage truck that Hellboy and Abe had arrived in; and his other two friends were still likewise distracted. Then he looked back at Liz. He sighed heavily and levered himself up onto the tailgate with her. He placed the long stemmed lighter in his lap and wrapped both hands around the metal edge as his head bowed under the weight of his thoughts. 

"Maybe it's...too much." He conceded, finally looking up at the firestarter. "But it's not like the first time I've put myself out on a limb to encourage my friends' relationships." He raised an eyebrow at her, willing her to remember a long passed coffee conversation about loving people for their faults. A conversation in which Hellboy ended up hitting him in the head with a rock. And yes, he knew about that now. That little revelation was thanks to the demon having a few too many beers when they got together with Abe for a 'forget the world sucks sometimes' drinking session. 

Liz pursed her lips together in a pale frown. "Well...yes.... But that was different and you know it. You never had to give up on love entirely before."

John kicked his feet slowly, sensing more than feeling as the toes of his shoes brushed the tips of the tall grass. He tried to come up with an acceptable reason for why he'd made his decision. What had ultimately made up his mind for him was the knowledge that he still had his friends. He loved his friends like family. Even if he had to live without 'love', he still had the connections that he'd made with his friends. And really, that was all that he'd ever expected to have, or even thought he deserved. So he could deal with this. He could deal with being alone. With having a soulmate that hated him. All of it. He could take it.

Except that wasn't the kind of answer that Liz was likely to accept. It wouldn't be the first time Liz told him to try being selfish for a change. He decided, instead, on a glib answer. 

"Well, just because I can't have love doesn't meant I won't get dates." He joked, giving the woman a cheeky grin. Her serious gaze dropped as she rolled her eyes and shoved at his shoulder. 

"Smart ass. You've been spending too much time with HB." She complained. John tipped his head back with a laugh. 

"John?" Abe's voice called from over by the cauldrons. The brunette turned his head to give the sapien his attention. "Are you ready?"

\-----------------------------------------------

The process of bringing back an elf turned out to be a very strange one, in John's opinion. After melting down several large boxes of white, unscented wax, they set about placing each piece of the elf siblings' remains into their respective cauldron. Abe put Nuala's sculpted debris into the cauldron on the left and John put Nuada's mostly shattered pieces into the cauldron on the right. It was slow work, trying not to let the wax splash up as new sections were added. No one was aloud to help them. It was part of the process to connect the souls. Allowing more than one person to place in the pieces would stretch the bond out over all people involved. And no one had volunteered for anything along those lines. The only ones responsible for the twins were Abe and John.

Soon, the white wax had turned the color of pale, almost tan cream. It seemingly stirred the different waxes together without any outside interference. The crescent moon above them reflected light into the warm wax. When all of the remains had been added to the concoction and everything had melted, John and Abe moved to the side of each cauldron. Each took a pair of heavy cloth potholders to protect their hands from the heat as they tipped the cauldrons to the side. The thick lip of the cauldron landed on the dirt shore around the lake, pouring wax directly into the water.

John watched in fascination as the wax flowed out. It spread quickly, instead of hardening upon contact with the cooler water, and there was no steam. It instead spun out beneath the lake's surface, filling quickly into a shape. As if it had been poured into a mold beneath the water, the wax began to take the shape of two bare statues. One male, one female. Both had straight hair cascading down over their shoulders, as if they stood vertically rather than the horizontal position they laid in. Elegant faces filled out, pointed ears cut through the sheets of their hair like knives. Hands were open at their sides, held away from their bodies and making the appendages look even more delicate for their distance. 

It took only a few moments before John stood in front of the slightly floating sculpture of Nuada, having moved the cauldrons to the side and mirroring Abe's stance at the feet of Nuala's water enveloped, waxy figure. John waited until Abe moved before doing the same. They eached leaned down, dipping their hands into the chill of the lake, and took each of their respective statues' hands in their own. 

Carefully, they pulled up.

The statues came with them, as if they were made of flexible rubber instead of wax. As they came above the water the change between cooled wax and chilly elven flesh was subtle. John was sure that he only noticed because the hands in his twitched beneath his fingers. The skin softened, becoming pliant in his grasp, as he drew Nuada up from the lake. Naked flesh became textured and real when it came above the surface. The wax body took on a heavier quality, like something with bones and organs rather than a lifeless sculpture. Nuada's head broke the surface and his first breath was audible, though more controlled than Nuala's surprised gasps. White-gold hair fell back over the elf prince's shoulders, now soaked with water. 

Amber eyes flew open last of all, startling John as they snapped onto his. His backward motion continued a little too far, throwing him off balance, and he fell onto his butt. The hands of the elf prince, which John had let go of as he started to fall, landed on the grass on either side of the agent. Nuada's face was suddenly too close, hovering over John's. His gaze, like cold honey, was narrowed in on John. The human swallowed at its intensity. He found himself enraptured, seeing for the first time the elf prince who had nearly wiped out humanity.

"Abraham." A soft, lilting voice broke the tension. Both John and Nuada turned their heads as one to look at Abe and Nuala. 

The pair stood together, Nuala wrapped in Abe's protective embrace with her face pressed into his shoulder. Her pale arms circled him in a desperate grip and her voice was filled with emotion. Abe accepted a large white robe from one of the other agents that had accompanied them and wrapped it, blanket-like, around his beloved's shoulders. John felt his mouth curve up in a smile. 

He almost forgot that he was trapped beneath the princess' anger prone brother, who was in a similar state of undress. His situation was pointed out to him when a bundle of white cloth suddenly hit Nuada in the face with enough force to have knocked a human down.

John jumped when the cloth hit Nuada with a _fwap!_ It didn't take John long to figure out that Hellboy had thrown the elf prince one of the large white robes. He looked over at the red demon with an exasperated expression. Liz was already staring at the demon with the same, vaguely disapproving eyes. 

"Did you have to do that?" He asked, as Nuada rose to his feet, putting his back to all of them and sorting out the robe so that he could put it on. He wasn't immediately attacking anyone. That was a positive sign. 

Hellboy smirked, glancing between John and Nuada. "What? You want me to be nicer to your megalomaniac boyfriend?" 

John blushed crimson, catching the silent glance that Nuada sent his way. Surprisingly, the elf prince didn't even have a disgusted expression on his face at the very idea of being 'attached' to a human. "Just...be nice, Red." John sighed, pushing himself up to his feet. His hands immediately circled behind him to brush the dirt and grass from the back of his suit pants. 

A glance back showed him that Abe and Nuala were still deeply involved with each other. They might have to remind the two where they were so that they could move this reunion back to the BPRD. That was, of course, if anyone could muster the courage to interrupt the couple in their tight embrace. 

"Hey, where do ya think you're going?" Hellboy's voice brought John's attention back to Nuada, who had started walking towards the garbage truck. 

The elf prince fixed Hellboy with a cold stare. "As one of the supernatural members of the assembly, am I not relegated to your pathetic camouflaged transport?" Nuada asked, his tone speaking volumes as to his thoughts about being made to ride in the unworthy vessel. John blinked, surprised that the prince knew that. He dismissed it, knowing that Red and the others had encountered Nuada before. 

"We...." John's voice sounded squeaky to his ears and he quickly cleared his throat to solve the problem. "We should all get into out respective vehicles. If we stay too long, we might attract attention." The agent turned his attention to Hellboy. "Red, can you dunk the cauldrons in the lake quick to cool them? I'll get a towel to dry them off and we can load them in the truck." He received a nod from the demon and turned on his heel to walk over to the supplies in the truck. There were four or five towels that had been put in the truck bed, with the intention of allowing Nuada and Nuala to dry off.

John picked them all up, watching out of the corner of his eye as Hellboy picked up a cauldron in each hand and dunked it into the lake. Steam hissed and rose rapidly around the demon, creating a menacing picture. Or, it was menacing until Hellboy turned around, put both cauldrons in his stone hand, and had to wipe the accumulated mist from his brow with his sleeve. John chuckled and walked over to Abe and Nuala. He pressed a gentle hand to his friend's arm. When the sapien turned to acknowledge him, not pulling away from Nuala at all, John pressed one of the towels into Abe's webbed hand. He flashed a quick smile, gaining a thankful one in return from his blue friend, and walked away. 

Taking another towel firmly in his free hand, John mustered his courage and walked towards Nuada. His heart beat a nearly deafening crescendo in his ears as he neared the human-hating prince. From a couple of feet away, he offered the towel politely to the prince. The towel was brown, an effort to keep it from appearing too dirty when using it to deal with the typical grime that the BPRD agents found in the line of duty, and Nuada's hand was a stark white against it. The elf took the towel gently, his golden eyes drawing over his new soulmate in careful consideration. It made John feel self conscious, so he quickly turned away and headed for Hellboy and the cauldrons.

Ignoring the dirty ground, John got down on his knees and began toweling dry the first of the cauldrons that Hellboy was holding aloft. He quickly wiped away the moisture on both of the large cast iron forms. When they were suitably dry, he rose back to his feet. Hellboy carried the cauldrons back over to the truck while John dusted the dirt off of his knees. 

John glanced over towards the garbage truck and was surprised to see Nuada leaning against it, watching him thoughtfully. The agent's cheeks went pink. He didn't know why he was being studied so intently, but it was embarrassing. Did Nuada know enough about bringing people back to life that he knew John was his soulmate now? Whether he did or didn't know, he was putting John on edge. The agent ducked his head and turned away to help pack up the other truck.

It didn't take them long to get everything ready to make the trip back to the bureau. Abe and Nuala even extracted themselves from their tight embrace, though they still held hands as they made their way into the garbage truck. Hellboy and Liz climbed into the truck as well, but Nuada stayed outside like he was waiting for something. John would normally have gotten into the back of the garbage truck with the others, but six people was a bit much to fit inside. Five would even be pushing it, but pulling Liz away from Red would be as easy as pulling teeth. And Manning would start collecting heads if someone supernatural sat where the average citizen could see them. Despite the public knowing about the BPRD's supernatural agents now, Manning still had an 'out of sight, out of mind' media policy. 

John walked over to Nuada, not sure why he was tempting fate doing this and expecting the full lash of the prince's disgust. He swallowed hard when the sharp golden eyes fixed on him. He half expected some insult, but nothing came. So, he took a deep breath and spoke. "We're ready to go... If... you want to come with us then you can climb in with the others." He motioned to the garbage truck, trying to project an air of calm. The golden eyes narrowed at him. 

"And where do you plan to ride?" The prince asked, his voice betraying nothing but calm nobility. John straightened a little. 

"W-well, I'd normally ride in the back with Red and Liz and Abe, but it's bound to be a little cramped back there right now." John explained, trying in vain to convey that he didn't want to separate them by the line of who was supernatural and who wasn't. He was closer to the agents in the back of the garbage truck than he was to any of the other agents at the BPRD. He didn't make the distinctions that the others did. Part of him hoped that this fact would be enough to help the prince...well, perhaps not like him, exactly. Just, maybe, it would help the prince to not hate him quite so much. 

A hand suddenly laid upon John's shoulder, a cool thumb brushing down the side of his throat. John's eyes widened. He felt that he should be more afraid than he was. The elf prince could kill him with a flick of his wrist, and he should probably be worried about that. Yet, he wasn't afraid. Something told him that he was in no danger. He was lulled, comforted even, by the prince's touch. 

Nuada suddenly chuckled, breaking the trance that he had over John. It was a musical sound, like the strumming of a guitar, which the agent found himself appreciating. "I see." The cool touch dropped away from his collar easily. John didn't know whether he was happy with that response or not. "Run along then. But I have expectations when we reach our destination that you will fulfill. We will speak of what has occurred here tonight."

John swallowed, a sense of foreboding in his stomach. He hoped that Abe or Red could give him a little backup for whatever _that_ conversation was going to be. "Y-Yeah....okay." He replied, then cleared his throat to try and chase away the squeak in his voice. Nuada smirked at the shorter man, then turned and swung himself up into the garbage truck without another word. He left John, slightly bewildered, outside the closing door with a mind full of questions.

\------------------------------------------------------------

When they got back to the BPRD, John expected to stow the trucks and then head off to find out what exactly Nuada wanted to talk to him about. That, however, was too ambitious for an agent of the BPRD. 

Manning caught them almost the moment the truck parked in the garage. Even as the small group was unloading supplies onto red painted dollies; preparation to take the heavy objects back to storage, Manning marched straight up to them with his usual self-righteous head of fire. He demanded that each of them fill out reports and requisition forms for the mission. Every man was responsible for his own mission report, but unfortunately for John, being the agent in command on this particular mission had saddled him with the extra responsibility of the requisition forms. The normally mild mannered agent had sagged against the truck with a weary, frustrated groan, then finished returning the supplies to their places like the responsible man that he was.

It was nearly two a.m. by the time John reached his desk to begin working on forms. The process of monotonously carrying objects from the truck to the storage room had driven all thoughts of his conversation with Nuada to the back of his mind. Now he just wanted to get these papers done with enough time to catch a few hours of sleep before he had to be back up at six a.m. He flicked on his office light and groaned loud and long at the giant stack of paperwork resting in his IN box. Sadly, his day spent helping Abe with the twins' resurrection had also allowed a lot of his paperwork to stack up. 

John yawned as he pulled off his suit jacket and draped it over the back of his chair. He slid into his seat, grimacing in discomfort. Drawers were opened and closed as he drew out the necessary forms to write on. He paired the papers with their own beige-yellow envelopes for inter-office delivery before starting the repetitive task of writing precisely what was done during the 'mission'. He finished each report, slotting it into the OUT box. The usual catharsis of placing something in the OUT box was somewhat abated by his exhaustion. When he finally finished all of the forms from tonight's foray, he glanced at his watch. 5:43 a.m. John sighed and continued on with the paperwork. He'd just have to catch a nap on his lunch break. 

\------------------------------------------------------

The talk with Nuada was slowly being pushed back. Not only did John not have time the day after they had brought the twins back to life, but he also didn't have any time the next few days after that. When John had finished catching up on his initial stack of paperwork, having only fallen asleep with his head on the desk twice, the BPRD was hit with an alert. 

Someone had summoned a Pan in Maine. While the ensuing problems weren't quite bad enough to have Hellboy out to play, they were bad enough to call out the agents with the most field experience. Unfortunately for John, his almost three years of experience was pretty high compared to the average agent and he was sent off to fight the Pan.

It was cold in Maine. Not Antarctica cold, but cold enough for him to be miserable. He had a hard time sleeping, only catching some rest once he was completely exhausted. The cold seemed to ignore his blankets, including the extra ones he'd requested from the front desk, and seeped right into his bones. John spent most of his nights tossing and turning. 

Strangely enough, he found himself thinking of Nuada on those restless nights. He wondered what the elf prince had wanted to talk to him about. He wondered if Nuada was acclimating okay to the BPRD. He hadn't received any frantic messages from his friends back home, so John assumed that the elf hadn't suddenly taken up his old crusade against humanity. Thank god...gods?...for small favors. 

The team stayed in Maine for almost a week. In the end, it was John that found where the Pan was hiding; an old factory at the epicenter of the incident radius. They took the abandoned factory with almost military precision, many of their agents having been in the military at one point or another, and found the Pan in the center factory floor. It tried to use one of the children that it had kidnapped as a shield, a small blonde girl named Sinead Thomas, but wasn't much of a match for the sniper's bullet to the side of its skull. 

John was injured in the initial struggle with the Pan, having taken a hard blow to his arm by one of the mind controlled pre-teens that the creature had kidnapped. The injury didn't seem horrible; the Pan had been feeding off the children's energies for days and they weren't at peak strength. It still hurt. A lot. The team leader had told them that anyone with a severe injury should be checked by medical before leaving the site, but John was convinced that it was just a sprain. How much damage could a pre-teen have possibly done? He'd gotten off easy in comparison to some of the other agents that had been attacked with knives and bits of broken glass. John decided he would just let the injury heal on its own, which it could do much better back at the BPRD. So, he favored his arm a little and went back to the hotel to pack.

\-------------------------------------------------------

Almost eleven hours after defeating the Pan, between travel time and hotel checkout, John's team rolled into the BPRD garage. Thankfully, John hadn't been the one driving and he was able to rest his aching arm. 

Said injured arm had started feeling funny a few hours after the mission. His arm had swollen up a little. When he pressed on it, certain places were less pliable than usual and hurt more than what he'd expect from a sprain. The parts of his arm that weren't hurting were numb. John was worried about it at first, but he had lost that to grim resignation when he remembered that there was little he could do about it during the drive.

As he got out of the truck, John decided that he probably _should_ go get checked out. Whatever was wrong with the arm, it certainly wasn't a sprain. He grabbed his go-bag and turned to head down the hall, not feeling like a chat with the other agents as they all untangled themselves from the vehicle. 

It was then that John ran headlong into Nuada. He grunted as bouncing off the prince's solid chest jarred his arm. Subconsciously, he pulled his arm into his own chest protectively, fighting down a curse. Then he looked up and saw who it was that he had run into. 

Guilt flowed over him. He was long overdue for that talk with Nuada and the elf prince had every reason to be upset with him. He met the cool amber eyes, expecting to see anger there. Instead, he saw nothing at all. The prince was projecting a calm air; completely unreadable except for the frown on his lips.

"Umm... Hi. I was just.... I'm not avoiding you or anything!" John stammered out. A single sculpted eyebrow arched up gracefully. The agent swallowed nervously. Of course, now the prince would think that he was avoiding him. Why did he put that notion in the other's head? "I m-mean... Things just got really busy. I planned to come talk to you, I swear!" Nuada's eyes narrowed and silenced him. 

Slowly, the elf prince reached forwards. He very gently cupped the agent's elbow, raising the injured arm with a careful touch. "This arm is broken." Nuada said coolly. 

John's eyes widened. "What...? No, it's not anything _that_ bad." He protested. Nuada scowled at him. 

"It is broken. I can hear the bones shifting over each other like jagged rocks." His head tilted slightly, as if he was listening to the sound. "And there is something else wrong with it." The prince let go of John's arm and the agent realized how much of its weight he had been supporting as the arm twanged with pain. He swallowed hard. 

"Oh... Well, I was heading for the infirmary. They shouldn't keep me too long. We can talk after, if that's-" John broke off as the elf circled behind him and began to steer him down the hall. 

"The longer you speak, the worse your wound gets. Hush. We shall talk later."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

Later, as it turned out, wouldn't be until the next day. When they arrived at the infirmary and the doctor examined John's arm, they discovered that not only did the agent have fractured bones, but compartment syndrome as well. The doctor immediately began prepping John for surgery in order to relieve the pressure that had been building up in his arm. Nuada retreated to the wall of the room and watched with serious eyes as the doctors took care of John. The brunette couldn't help wondering why the elf prince stayed. Certainly, watching the doctors care for him was a waste of Nuada's time. Or maybe the elf was simply watching for his forced soulmate to die? The possibilities followed John into drugged, exhausted sleep before he was wheeled off for surgery. 

The next morning, John's eyes fluttered slowly open. He caught shifting hues of light over the walls, denoting that he was in a room with windows. That meant that he must be in the above ground portion of the BPRD. Eventually, his eyes started to focus and 'above ground' resolved into 'infirmary'. He had been given one of the private rooms along the outer wall of the infirmary. The sun was peeking through half-drawn blinds to John's right side. He guessed from the slant of the light that it was morning, not quite noon. 

"At last, you wake." A voice stated into the quiet, sounding somewhat annoyed at him. 

John's gaze flicked over to his left side. The soft cast on his left arm caught his attention momentarily before he looked further. Nuada stood, leaning against the wall. The elf watched him coolly, arms crossed over his chest. John remembered that talk that the two of them were supposed to have, before life and paperwork got in the way. He swallowed the thick lump in his throat before trying to speak. "You...you wanted to talk about something?" He rasped out unevenly. It was pointless to try small talk. He had a feeling that the elf prince didn't care about the weather they were having.

Nuada's eyes narrowed. "About my sister and I's resurrection, yes." The prince pushed off of the wall to stalk over to the fragile human lying in a bed before him. "You have some explaining to do, John T. Myers." 

John shivered at the way the elf said his name. There was a heat and a chill to it. Cold like ice cream on a hot day, yet hot like sinking into a warm bath on a cold night. Both parts sent tingles over John's tired body. He tried not to show his reaction, despite his suspicion that he was blushing anyways, and nodded solemnly. "What do you want to know?" 

Nuada carefully sank into the seat beside John's bed. The action was just as preposterously graceful as everything else the elf prince did. "Why did you chose to return me to life? You know of my previous actions towards humanity." Nuada asked carefully, his voice low. His eyes were sharp as a hawk's. John felt insignificant under their stare. 

"Without you, we couldn't bring Princess Nuala back to life. And Abe loves her." The agent responded reasonably. Golden eyes narrowed. 

"Then why not cage me? You had no proof that I would not attack you."

John stared at Nuada for a long moment. "Should we have tried to? You probably could have gotten out of any cage we put up." He replied reasonably. The prince's head cocked to the side. "Besides, we didn't want you to be a prisoner. Abe said that something about the process to bring you back would keep you from attacking. We're happy with you not attacking anyone. There's no reason to lock you up if you're going to be reasonable."

Nuada sneered distastefully. "Reasonable." He spat out the word like it was something sour. "If it is so reasonable to watch ones people be relegated to corners of a polluted world, then perhaps your people should try it for a change." Nuada raised his chin, but his eyes seemed to skate away from John even as he insulted his race.

"You're right." The agent conceded, gaining the elf's attention back on him. "The elves shouldn't have so little space to live in." Nuada's serious gaze seemed to lighten for a fraction of a moment, tempered by a smug air. "But-" The momentary approval John had seemed to garner snapped away like a door slamming shut. "Violence is not the way. I know humans haven't learned that lesson yet either, but we all need to try and work together without hurting each other."

Nuada huffed, crossing his arms again. His severe expression didn't swim back up to cover his face this time, however, and he seemed to take something from the human's words. _Strange_ , John thought, _that he seems to listen instead of dismissing me right off the bat. I wonder why._ He felt his lips quirk up involuntarily. 

"Well, John Myers, you have yet to convince me...but I am not unwilling to be convinced." The prince clasped his hands together in his lap. He watched John with interested eyes. John looked down at his blanketed lap, not sure if he should ask the questions that clamored for space at the front of his consciousness. When he looked up, the prince's gaze was still laid upon him.

"Not to be ungrateful," He began, giving in to his own questions, "but why does what I say make any difference? Aren't you supposed to hate me?" 

"You are unlike the rest of your species. You have a pure heart... A heart without the greedy hole that is present in all of humanity." Nuada lifted his chin. "I am willing to concede that not every human deserves death; not when there are some like you." 

John felt his jaw dropping open. This was something he'd never expected to hear from Nuada. It wasn't new news to him, of course. Professor Broom and Abe had both told him that he was pure of heart. Even though he felt that they had made some kind of mistake, he had accepted the idea without too much struggle. But, how did Nuada know what Broom and Abe had told him ages ago.

"Why do you think I have a pure heart? We haven't talked very much, and-"

Nuada's laughter was like a burst of fireworks; bright, beautiful, and felt all the way through John's chest. It gave the agent a thrill to hear. "You poor humans. How do you survive with no telepathy at all?" The elf's mouth was twisted in a smirk, his eyes like warm honey. "When you and Abraham brought my sister and I back to this plane, we were granted a view into each other. At the time of resurrection, Abraham saw all of my sister's memories and she experienced all of his. I was privy to your mind from the instant my head broke the surface of the water until the moment our hands parted."

John's eyes widened in horror. Nuada had been in his head?! He'd seen everything John had thought or felt. All of his experiences; the good and the bad. He'd seen every mistake and every success. He'd also seen every supernatural creature and every human that John had seen die. The agent dropped his head into his uninjured hand; awash with shame, regret, and righteous anger. How was that fair?! He hadn't consented to sharing his mind. Well... Maybe he had when he decided to bring the elf prince back to life, but no one had told him about that! His mind was his own. He felt violated.

A cool press on his bicep brought him back. He drew away from the touch quickly, taking his arm away from Nuada's gentle fingers. Looking up, he saw the shutters fall over the elf's eyes, shutting down the emotion that he had been showing John before. Regret blossomed underneath the agent's other feelings. He had been enjoying their openness; Nuada was actually pretty engaging to speak with, especially when John had expected just to hear a barrage of hatred for humanity. He swallowed hard, pushing that response down beneath his other emotions. He wasn't giving up his outrage yet.

"I shall give you some time to come to terms with this." Nuada stated coolly, rising to his feet. He silently turned and left the room with perfect grace. 

John frowned at the door where the elf had disappeared. He tried to cross his arms, wincing when he encountered his sore, bandaged forearm. Immediately, he remembered Nuada walking him to the infirmary the night before. An elf that remembered humans slaughtering his kind, yet he had cared enough about John's well-being to make certain that he was taken care of. Guilt washed over the agent like a tidal wave. He sank back into his bed, eyes on the floor. It wasn't Nuada's fault that he had seen John's memories. He never asked to be brought back. John let out a long, slow breath. Well, he'd certainly made a mess of that.........

\------------------------------------------

It took him several days to be released from the medical ward. He'd seen neither hide nor hair of Nuada since his freak out. John itched to talk to the elf now, wanting to mend what little relationship there was to mend. 

During one of the few visits he got from his friends, Abe had let slip that Nuada was in the room off the library. He had apparently taken over the empty room and several artifacts that 'went missing' from the items vault in order to convert the room into his own personal tinkering space. While absconding with things that had been locked away by the BPRD was frowned upon, no one was brave enough to tell Nuada that, and the elf hadn't done anything aggressive since his resurrection. Apparently, there wasn't anyone willing to risk changing the status quo by saying something to the prince about it. 

John made his escape from the infirmary the instant the doctor released him, with a bottle of pain meds for his healing arm. The bottle rattled in his pocket as he made his way to the library. He pushed the large golden door open, thankful that it was lighter than it looked and he was able to do so one handed. 

Nuala was at the bookshelves, selecting some new topics for herself and Abe to research together. Her eyes flicked up from the thick tome in her hands to look at John as he entered. She studied him, and John felt as if she were looking through him like one of the books, before her lips quirked up in a smile. One slender hand rose and pointed John in the direction of what had come to be accepted as Nuada's tinkering room. The agent wondered for a moment if he really _did_ see tacit approval on her face, or if that was a figment of his own imagination. Nodding to her, he turned and let himself quietly into the room. 

Nuada sat facing away from the door. That didn't mean that he was unaware of John entering the room. Sneaking up on an elf like Nuada would take a lot more than Quantico training. John didn't bother trying any harder than usual to be quiet, then, as he moved off to the elf's left side. He lowered himself carefully to sit on the floor beside the object that Nuada was currently tinkering with, a small silver orb with the side popped open to allow him access to its insides. The prince gave him a small glance, then turned his gaze back to the object, as if to point out to the human that he didn't want to talk to him. John knew he would have to make the first few moves if they were going to get anywhere. 

"I was unfair to you the other day." He stated, crossing his legs in what his teachers used to call 'Indian style' and folding his hands together in his lap. Nuada paused what he was doing, glancing up at him. He seemed interested, but clearly John would have to do better than that if he wanted the elf to forgive him. John cleared his throat and swallowed, trying to give himself time to pick his words carefully. "I reacted poorly... I realized after you left that you didn't have any more say in things than I did." 

Nuada finally put down the slender tools that he was working with, turning his head to look openly at John as he spoke. The agent thought that would be a good thing, but realized that it might be a bit of a double edged sword. After all, if he had Nuada's undivided attention, then his mistakes would be more obvious. He swallowed again. 

"I don't like the idea of anyone in my head. Just so you know. I wasn't upset because it was you that saw... Well, I was upset that you saw, but mostly because I'm a terrible example to prove to you that humans can be good. I'm just as selfish and scared as a lot of other people and if we wanted to make sure you saw the good in humanity then we'd need someone who runs charities or things like that..." John snapped his jaw shut when he saw the corners of Nuada's mouth start to curl up. As careful as the elf was with his expressions, this was probably the equivalent to him laughing openly at John's rambling. "Yeah, okay.... I'm also not the brightest human either."

Nuada chuckled and shook his head slowly. "Perhaps not," John tried not to be insulted; they were his own words being used against him here, "but you are pure of heart. That speaks louder than any of the other traits you mentioned." John blinked, awestruck. Nuada just... _complimented_ him. 

"Did you just say something nice about a _human_?" The agent asked, almost wanting the confirmation more for proof that he hadn't hallucinated it than for any other reason. Nuada's eyes narrowed at him, but he still seemed to be fighting a smirk. 

"I believe I said something true, and that is all you shall get out of me." He retorted. John grinned widely. 

"It's more than I expected to get, so I'll take it." He shifted to put his uninjured hand on the floor and pushed himself up. Nuada watched him go, eyes warmer than usual, and John tried not to react to the little thrill that shot through him at that gaze. Maybe he and Nuada would be able to start some kind of friendship now.

John glance back as he reached the door. The sight of the elf's capable hands returning to their work; his broad shoulders and muscled arms, created the errant thought in the agent's head that perhaps he'd like something a little less innocent. He immediately squashed that thought. The last thing he needed was the telepathic elf prince finding out about _that_ idea. John shook his head and opened the door. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Three months passed at the BPRD. John found it had been a happy three months. Liz had gone into labor two months ago and aside from needing flame retardant cribs, the twins came without any real complications. Little Trevor looked more like his mommy, with pale skin and dark eyes. Baby Lily was red like her daddy, though she didn't possess Red's huge right hand (for which Liz was thankful), and her eyes were the same amber color.

John instantly fell in love with both babies. Seeing them every day, he felt like part of their lives. Liz did nothing to discourage the notion, calling him Uncle Johnny every time she talked about him to the babies. Trevor seemed ambivalent towards his presence, but Lily loved him. She always reached out for him when he came to deliver the family's meals, and she had only lit him on fire once, by accident. John was inordinately proud of her for quickly putting out the flames, even though Liz had apologized profusely. John assured the worried woman that he was well versed in stop-drop-and-roll and wasn't afraid of getting a little singed. Then Hellboy promptly told him to stop flirting. Jokingly, of course, but John took it as a sign that he ought to put his attention elsewhere for the rest of the day. 

He left them along in order to attend to his paperwork, burying himself in the stacks of folders until the shift change at five o'clock. He delivered the family dinner to the vault, then quickly made himself scarce. His feet carried him automatically to the library. It was habit by now. He would finish off his work for the day, then he would head to the room off the library. Nuada was always there waiting for him. They would work on bits of delicate machinery, goblin artifacts from the vault or garage sale items like the music box John had found them. They would discuss books, poetry and philosophy, or sometimes they would just read in each other's company. John had even introduced Nuada to podcasts, which the agent had been using to fill the hole left in the absence of old radio shows like the ones he'd listened to with his uncle. Nuada was a fan of _Welcome to Nightvale_. John didn't ask why, just resolved not to introduce him to _Hello From the Magic Tavern_. Their representation of elves probably wouldn't please the prince. 

When he opened the doors to the library, he went to wave at Abe and Nuala as he passed. He stopped, however, when he saw Nuada sitting there with them. Curious, John picked his way around a few unshelved stacks of books to stand behind the armchair Nuada was seated in. As per usual, he didn't hold any illusions about having snuck up on the elf. The prince knew he was there. John found himself placing his hands on the soft cushion of the armchair behind Nuada's shoulders.

"Hey. Is something going on?" He asked, wracking his brain for the reason that his- that the elf prince was sitting out here. Nuala smiled at him in a way that was, per usual, all too knowing. 

"Nothing." Nuada replied, rising up out of his seat. He turned towards John, placing his hand down on the back of the chair. They inadvertently touched, just a brush of fingers, but John felt a sharp bolt of heat stab through him. He dropped his hands, trying to do so casually to cover the fact that he was desperately trying to prevent the elf from getting a peek into his mind. Nuada wouldn't do anything with what he saw, John was certain, but the agent really didn't want the embarrassment of the elf seeing his rather... impure thoughts. 

"Oh...uh, okay, well do you want to work on some goblin technology tonight? I finished reading the book you gave me for it." John found his hands twisting in front of him nervously and stopped. "Or, I got the new show the Nightvale people made. _Alice Isn't Dead_. Seems interesting." 

Nuada gave him a slow once over, eyes studying him like a puzzle. "Either. You can decide." The elf stated calmly, bringing his hand to John's suit clad elbow and guiding him towards the room that the human had originally been heading for. John caught his backward glance at Nuala and Abe, but was unable to decipher any of their expressions before finding himself in the other room. He found himself steered into the room and left standing a few feet from the door as Nuada closed it.

Swallowing with a sudden uneasiness, John started to wander towards the old wired speakers he had set up on the table in the corner. He made the decision after he was already in motion that they could listen to the new podcast first.

He didn't get very far when a hand grasped the loose cloth of his sleeve. "John, we need to talk."

"Nothing good ever came from those words." The agent tried to joke. Nuada slowly turned him around, fixing his golden eyes upon John's chocolate brown ones. 

"You have been withdrawing from my touch." The elf said bluntly. John felt his stomach drop. He really had hoped that the prince wouldn't notice. They had been doing so well. He would even venture so far as to say that they had become friends. Now he was going to lose all of that because he couldn't keep his mind out of the gutter. 

"I'm sorry." He apologized up front, feeling like he had everything to be sorry for anyways. Nuada's hands settled softly on his shoulders, keeping to clothed places that would bar him from being able to read the human before him. John was grateful, though he felt as though the entire point would be moot after this conversation was over.

"Have I overstepped my bounds with you? What has caused this?"

John's shoulders drooped. He sighed and raised his hand up to place it over one of Nuada's cooler, sturdier skin. He couldn't feel or see the connection that was there. He didn't know how much Nuada could see through the link, so he pushed forwards everything that he had been feeling. All of the happiness at their companionship. All of the desire lingering at the edge of his mind when he watched the elf relax and open up to him. All of the sadness and angst that gnawed at him when he thought about what he couldn't have. No love, no closeness, no family of his own. He pushed it all to the forefront for his unwilling soulmate to read, expecting the hands to jerk away from him at any moment.

Instead, John found himself spun around and gathered in a crushing hug. The breath was driven from him as arms strong as iron bands circled him and pulled him into that surprisingly soft concrete slab of a chest. Completely bewildered, John turned his head up to look searchingly at the elf. He found that he could do no more than bury his face in the prince's neck at this angle and received a pleased hum when he did so. 

"Why did you not tell me sooner? I have been waiting all this time." Nuada's hands curled around the human's body, gripping faint bruises into his hip and his waist. 

John's eyes widened. "Y-you have...?" He breathed. Part of him expected it to be a 'gotcha' answer. The sanest response would be Nuada telling him 'of course not, idiot, don't be so gullible', but that didn't happen. Nuada raised his hand to cup John's cheek and kissed him deeply. 

Kissing couldn't have even been the proper term. Devouring felt more appropriate, as the prince overwhelmed John with lips, teeth, and tongue. The human felt lightheaded in an instant, relying on Nuada's tight grip to keep him upright. He could do little more than hold onto the prince's arms for support and kiss desperately back. 

John's back found the wall and he was pinned there like a butterfly specimen. He couldn't bring himself to care that he was completely and totally trapped; not when Nuada lifted one of the human's legs to wrap around his solid waist, putting their erections together. John gasped breathlessly as his own hardness came into contact with a bigger, thicker mirror. A whine slipped from his lips, making Nuada growl in response. They ground together, noises going unconstrained until John suddenly remembered where he was.

His gasp barely had a chance to hit the open air before the elf in front of him swallowed the noise. Nuada must have still been reading his mind, because he let out a dark chuckle. As they broke apart, the prince leaned up to place his lips beside John's ear and whispered, "Guess you had better be quiet."

The agent's face turned an even darker shade of red. "Oh god." He whispered, before giving in to the next kiss that took his mouth. Everything devolved into a mass of writhing heat. Hips gyrated against each other, panted breaths fanned out over their cheeks. John thought he would go mad before he got more. Then Nuada pushed the agent's leg down.

Before John could draw breath to speak, his pants were being undone and drawn down around his ankles. When the cloth piled on the floor, he kicked it to a mostly unoccupied corner of the room. His boxers quickly followed. Nuada's deft hands rose, divesting him of the other half of his clothes. The brush of rough fabric against his skin had never felt more sensual. The human urgently reached out to return the favor, pulling off the loose burgundy shirt that Nuada was wearing. An expanse of creamy, too-white-to-be-real skin stretched out over finely honed muscle. John nearly drooled in response. If that was the top half... He immediately dropped his hands to Nuada's waist to open the catch of his pants, only to stall when he found the fastener to be unfamiliar. The prince chuckled, opening his pants himself and letting them fall away.

John gaped at the body before him; muscular, elegant, like porcelain made sturdy. There were certainly more than enough parts to be jealous of. Especially _that_...part. Luckily, John wasn't so much jealous as he was...wanting. His hands automatically reached out, taking a firm grip on his lover's hip with one hand and a gentle hold on a more sensitive place. Nuada rumbled happily at his attention, leaning in to kiss him senseless again as he stroked the prince slowly. 

A slick, wet feeling traced over the skin of his ass, moving with definite purpose towards his waiting hole. It took John a moment to realize that Nuada must have used some of the machine oil from the table a foot or so away from them. He was so busy thinking about where the sensation had come from, that the first finger slipping inside him was a surprise. He gasped, the elf's cooler skin causing his muscles to flex and tighten around the finger. John tightened his hand on Nuada's thick shaft in return, in part a reminder to himself to keep stroking and part an encouragement to go ahead and move.

They felt each other tentatively, with Nuada's touch matching John stroke for stroke as he sought out the human's prostate. When he found it, John arched his back up off the wall, a moan trapped in his throat as he tried to keep himself silent. The prince smirked at him, using his distraction to slide another finger into the tight ring of muscle. The agent's body clenched and unclenched at the slight burn quickly morphing into pleasure. Soon, Nuada was stroking against his prostate again, getting him ready for a third entry. He waited, kissing the breath from his partner until he was once again distracted, then breached him with a third and final finger. 

A strangled whimper broke free of John's stranglehold on his voice. He fought hard to remain quiet, despite already setting a soft noise loose, as three fingers flexed and pummeled within him. The strength in those digits as they widened his muscles and stroked over his pleasure spot was unimaginable. He found himself panting hard into Nuada's shoulder, wanting more but uncertain if he could last much longer. 

No sooner did the thought cross his mind, than Nuada was withdrawing his fingers. He drew one of John's shaking legs up around his waist, using his free hand to spread the machine oil over his waiting erection. The agent felt like he should say something, but his mind couldn't cobble together enough fragments to form a sentence.

Nuada pinned John to the wall again, raising the human's other leg to loop around his waist as well. His eyes were like molten gold as they latched onto the agent's, looking deeply. "Ready?" He whispered, his breath quicker than usual, yet far from the gasps that John was taking in. The human nodded.

The pressure against his hole almost seemed like too much, in that instant before Nuada finally pushed inside of him. Then it was slick and hot and _oh god!_ John's head lolled back against the wall and his tongue felt leaden in his mouth. His hands found purchase on Nuada's shoulders and gripped there until his fingers were sore. Just when his mind was beginning to return, the elf started moving and sent it spiraling off into the ether again. 

Deep, slow thrusts drove John up the wall, figuratively and literally. He was biting his lip to keep quiet as each thrust struck his sweet spot with uncanny accuracy. It was getting harder and harder to stifle his voice, as Nuada seemed dedicated to making him lose control. The elf prince proved that theory true as he sped up his pace and dipped his head down to bite and suck dark marks into John's pale flesh. John teetered closer and closer to the edge, not wanting to fall off it without taking his partner with him. 

Nuada chuckled, tilting his head up to nuzzle his human's hair as he thrust into him with harder, deeper strokes, and whispered into his ear. "Come for me."

John's vision whited out for a moment. His entire body convulsed in heat and pleasure, tightening down around Nuada and bringing the elf with him, much to Nuada's surprise. Pale hands gripped tightly into John's flesh, clinging to him as he did to his prince. It wasn't until he started to come down from a pleasure induced high, that John felt his vocal cords ache. He had screamed, he realized, right at the very end.

He flushed red, embarrassed, until Nuada kissed him again. The prince kissed him long and deep, driving his mind blank in seconds. When he drew back, Nuada left John speechless. His lips twisted up into another smirk and John couldn't find it in himself to be upset about that.

\------------------------------------------------

As they emerged from the tinkering room hand in hand, once again fully clothed, John looked around. He tried not to blush and wondered where Abe and Nuala had gone off to. Part of him worried that the two of them had heard his and Nuada's... 'activities'. Said elf prince gave a quiet laugh, reading the worries that fluttered around in the agent's mind. "What?" John asked him, trying not to scowl. 

"They went to have a nice picnic in the back garden right after we went into the room." Nuada explained. The agent blinked, then relaxed a little, relieved that they hadn't been caught. Then he remembered Nuada's little warning of 'Guess you had better be quiet'. He turned accusing eyes on his new lover. 

"Why did I have to be quiet then?" He demanded. Nuada quirked a mischievous eyebrow. 

"That? I merely wondered how long it would take to make you lose control." The elf lowered his mouth to John's ear, nuzzling him again. "You were quite impressive." He teased.

John's face was awash with embarrassed heat. He crossed his arms defensively, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. "I think I should be madder at you than I am." He scowled, until the warmth of his lover's arms circled his middle.

"Be mad later." Nuada suggested, slanting his lips over John's. That, John decided, wasn't a bad idea. Maybe this soulmate thing would work out after all. 

 

END..../

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope you guys liked that. I'm a little uncertain about Nuada, just because it's hard to make him into a good guy when he tried to WIPE OUT HUMANITY...... But, hey, I can't resist adding fics to a small fandom so John/Nuada just happened. Do you want more of this pairing? I'm willing to write more of them if anyone wants it.


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